A popular application of conveyors is for the conveyance of consumer products, including food and other biologically active articles. Invariably, such products contact the conveying surface and may shed debris that becomes trapped in nooks or crevasses, leading to unsanitary conditions. This can be a particular issue in conveyors comprised of modular links interconnected by a connector, such as a rod, given the requirement for apertures or pockets in the links for receiving the connector.
In the past, many others have proposed the use of external devices that use cleaning fluids for washing a conveyor to enhance its cleanliness, but with limited success given the pockets and recessed areas on a typical conveyor in which bacteria and the like may become lodged and proliferate. Still others have proposed the inclusion of anti-microbial agents into the materials used to form the conveyor chain, but at a relatively high cost and again with limited success.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved manner of enhancing the cleanliness of a conveyor. The arrangement should be readily adaptable to different types of conveyors at minimal cost, and potentially applied in a retrofit situation without extensive effort.